New York, Apr. 22 : The United Nations has been lambasted as "utterly hypocritical" for continuing to employ Fiji''s soldiers and hand money to the country''s power-hungry military regime.

New Zealand''s Foreign Minister Murray McCully has joined a host of regional commentators in challenging the international organisation''s role in giving work to Fiji''s powerful military.

Washington, April 22 : Think memory worsens with age? Then yours probably will, says a new study.

The study found that senior citizens who think older people should perform poorly on tests of memory actually score much worse than seniors who don''t buy in to negative stereotypes about aging and memory loss.

Washington, April 22 : In a new research, an astronomer has suggested that the most Earthlike planet yet found has conditions right for liquid water, and life as we know it.

According to a report in National Geographic News, the planet, known as Gliese 581d, has a lot more in common with Earth than astronomers first thought.

“New measurements of the planet’s orbit place it firmly in a region where conditions would be right for liquid water, and thus life as we know it,” said astronomer Michel Mayor, from Geneva University in Switzerland.

Washington, April 22 : Madonna is back to pumping iron in the gym just three days after she landed in hospital following a riding accident.

The megastar had been rushed to a hospital on New York''s Long Island after she fell off a horse while riding in the Hamptons on April 18.

The Queen of Pop was discharged hours later and her rep Liz Rosenberg, had said the singer would undergo "further tests and continues to remain under observation by doctors".

Washington, April 22 : A protein, CXCL12, that normally controls intestinal cell movement, has the potential to halt colorectal cancer spreading, say researchers.

Medical College of Wisconsin Cancer Center researchers in Milwaukee say that the new research represents a potential mechanism by which CXL12 may slow cancer spreading.

Controlling this process could lead to new biological therapies for colorectal cancers, the authors said.

Washington, April 22 : A study conducted in India has found that kids born to short women were 70 percent more likely to die before age 5 than those born to taller women.

The study, carried out by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), revealed an association between the height of mothers and several indicators of her children''s health, including risk of death, risk of being underweight, and anemia.